- WEALTHY: How simple can investing get? (Rick Pendergraft)
- HEALTHY: Where to buy organic wine (Kelley Herring)
- WISE: Peter Drucker on making decisions
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
- The Band-Aid solution + 4 more ways to make tough choices (Yanik Silver)
- An easy way to add names to your e-list (Paul Lawrence)
- It’s Fun to Know… about stinky flowers
- Add “patina” to your vocabulary
== Highly Recommended ==
Time For the Experts to Fish or Cut Bait
It’s time for them to fish or cut bait.
We’ve tossed out a daring challenge to a dozen of the world’s leading Internet marketing experts: Hand over to YOU one technique each that could make you a minimum of $100,000 in cash within the next 12 months. All told, that’s as much as $1.2 million extra next year in your pocket!
It’s all happening when you join Early to Rise in Delray Beach, Florida this November for our 2008 Info-Marketing Bootcamp: “The Internet Ultimatum: Zero to $1.2 Million In 12 Months Flat”.
The premise is simple: Come with even the vaguest notion for launching your own start-up business… or exploding you existing business… and you’ll leave with all you need for transforming that business into a raging river of cash through the power of Information Marketing.
And specifically, you’ll get at least a dozen specific and actionable ideas for taking your business to $1.2 million or more over the next twelve months… and then to $10 million and beyond.
(Plus there’s a “Two for One” deal going on right now you need to check out).
Read your full invitation here.
Flipping the Switch
As Tony Robbins says, you don’t have to know how electricity works. All you need to know is how to flip the switch to get the light to come on.
The same can be said for many of the technical indicators that are available to investors. You hear about oscillators, regression lines and channels, and so on and so forth. You could spend the rest of your life learning about every indicator technicians have come up with trying to gain an edge over other investors.
Oscillators, for example, are nothing more than overbought/oversold indicators. Each one has a level that is supposed to mark a turning point for the stock – a level that screams that the stock is overbought or oversold.
There’s nothing wrong with using indicators to help make your investing decisions. But I caution you not to get caught up in the mechanics of what goes into them. Just focus on the output you’re interested in.
For instance, I use a 10-unit RSI as my overbought/oversold indicator. RSI stands for Relative Strength Indicator. It measures a security’s price in relationship to itself on a scale of 1 to 100, with 50 being the norm. It’s rather simple, but I find it to be more reliable than most other indicators. If the RSI reaches 70, that is a sign that the stock is overbought. If it reaches 30, that’s a sign that the stock is oversold. I can buy when the RSI is at 30 and sell when it hits 70. Or I can sell short at 70 and buy back at 30.
It doesn’t get any easier than that. The actual calculation behind those numbers isn’t nearly as easy, but I don’t have to do the calculating. What matters is that I know what constitutes overbought and oversold.
Remember, don’t get caught up in the mechanics of technical analysis, get caught up in the results.
[Ed. Note: You can get the results you want with your investment dollars by following a few basic, elementary patterns - and you could be making $300 to $5,000 in an hour. That's what investment expert Rick Pendergraft does. Learn his embarrassingly simple system for making money right here]
“Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.”
Peter Drucker
5 Ways to Make Hard Decisions a Little Easier
By Yanik Silver
Yesterday, my wife Missy woke up with her stomach in knots. Clara, the woman who’d been cleaning our house for the past two years, was becoming more and more unreliable. Sometimes she called to say she’d be late – but sometimes she just didn’t show up at all. Not only that, but she was doing a terrible job.
“I should probably fire her,” Missy said. “Then again… she’s been working for us for a long time. And she used to be so good. Maybe if I talk to her…”
Missy knew she had to do something about this problem, but had been procrastinating for weeks. And watching her agonize over it got me thinking about “tough” decisions – the kind we all struggle with.
It seems to be easier to keep putting them off… but that just prolongs the discomfort.
Whenever I’ve had a decision weighing on my mind, it’s kept nagging at me. But when I finally made the hard call, it was never as bad as I had worked it up to be. In fact, I’ve found that the longer you chew on it, the worse it gets.
Thinking back, there are two vivid examples that spring to mind…
Breaking Away From My Dad’s Business…
One of the biggest decisions I ever had to make was whether or not to leave my father’s business. I started working with him when I was 14. And I fully intended to stay with him and help grow the company – a medical equipment sales and service business. But I got the “itch” to go on my own in 1998.
That’s when I started experimenting with information marketing.
At first, I spun off of my dad’s business by selling information to plastic surgeons on how to get more patients. And my dad was pretty flexible. He let me use his office as my home base while I was still working for him. Then he let me take Fridays off so I had more time to work on my own projects.
The idea that I was somehow “betraying” him and the family business was eating me up. I knew my heart was no longer into it, and I had to break away. My dad expected me to work with him side-by-side until he retired. But I couldn’t continue to live my life based on someone else’s expectations. I had to do what was right for me. So, nine years ago, I made the decision to leave the company.
Looking back, it was by far the best decision I ever made for my financial future.
Attending My First Seminar…
To get my business off the ground, I had been learning a lot about direct marketing. And when I got an invitation to a copywriting seminar in Phoenix, I was tempted. This was back in October 1998. But because the seminar was so expensive, I almost passed up this opportunity that I later realized was the turning point in my business (and bank account).
My fledging information marketing business had been pulling in maybe $2,000 or $3,000 per month. No great shakes. So I was understandably hesitant to spend several thousand dollars and miss several days of work (both of which I couldn’t afford) in order to attend the seminar.
My dad thought I would be a fool to go. He chided me (in his thick Russian accent) “Mr. Yanik, why do you want to throw away your money. If you have so much of it, I can help you get rid of it. Don’t you already have enough of these books and tapes?”
But I bit the bullet and went. Another tough – but smart – decision.
Frankly, if I had listened to my dad, I know I wouldn’t be anywhere near where I am today. I can directly trace the moment when everything “clicked” for me and I “got it” to that seminar. That’s when I discovered the power of how to use words and turn them into cash windfalls.
I’ve found that people regret things they don’t do much more than things they do. That’s not how I want to live my life – brooding over “shouldas” “couldas” or “wouldas.”
In fact, I believe that most of our “tough” decisions aren’t really so tough. But the longer it takes for us to get off the fence and take action, the more we magnify them in our own heads.
With that in mind, here are five simple things to try when you are having trouble making a decision:
Decision-Making Method #1: Think about the worst-case scenario.
What is the worst possible thing that can happen if you make the wrong decision? It almost certainly won’t happen – but even if it does, you can probably live with it. When I was torturing myself over going off on my own, for example, I had wild thoughts of my father disowning me. Of course, he didn’t do that. He may have been disappointed, but he didn’t flip out.
Decision-Making Method #2: Listen to your gut.
This is huge! Don’t try to rationalize your way out of making the decision. You’ve got good instincts. Take advantage of them.
Decision-Making Method #3: Give yourself a deadline.
If you give yourself an indefinite amount of time to decide on a course of action, you’ll never do it. Not to mention, you’ll drive yourself crazy! Think of yourself as the high-powered CEO of your own life – an executive who MUST make decisions quickly.
Decision-Making Method #4: Visualize your ideal outcome.
This is an exercise I learned from my friend John Harricharan. He calls it the “Power Pause.” It takes three minutes – one minute to think about what you want to happen… one minute to think about how good you’ll feel when it does happen… and one minute to calm yourself down by thinking about what you are already grateful for in your life.
Decision-Making Method #5: The Band-Aid solution.
You know how painful it can be to pull off a bandage (especially for those of us who are kind of hairy)? Well, the secret is to pull it off quickly. Nothing is worse than paralysis by analysis. You’ll never have all the information you need to make the perfect decision. Do the best you can with what you’ve got. Then move on.
And here’s a bonus tip: When all else fails, flip a coin. That’s how I decided the time had come for me to propose to Missy!
By the way, in case you’re wondering what Missy decided to do about Clara… she gave her a call and simply told her we weren’t going to be able to use her anymore. Much to Missy’s surprise, Clara was relieved. It seems that there’s another family much closer to her own neighborhood that she’s been wanting to work for, and she was happy to have us free up a day for her.
There you go – all that angst and gut-wrenching turmoil could have been avoided simply by making the decision to fire Clara weeks ago.
[Ed. Note: As master Internet marketer Yanik Silver (www.internetlifestyle.com) says, a tough decision becomes a whole lot easier if you just bite the bullet and make it. Maybe you've been agonizing over whether now's the time to start your own Internet business. Use Yanik's 5 methods to help you make the decision - and we can make it even easier for you. Come to ETR's 2008 Information Marketing Bootcamp this November, and we'll give you 12 ways to make between $1 million and $100 million with your own Internet business. Yanik will be one of our all-star speakers - and he'll be sharing some of his biggest secrets to making money online. Get all the details here.]
The Missing Ingredient in the Recipe for Riches
By now, I’m sure you realize that there has been something missing in how you’ve been trying to get ahead. I mean, there must be something missing or you’d have made it by now, right? That’s just common sense.
So now I want to share with you what could very well be the missing ingredient – the one with the potential to set you up financially for life.
“His” name is Robert Cox and he’s already mentored 4 billionaires. Yes, billion with a “B.” And now, he wants to mentor you too.
What he’s offering is a one-time window of opportunity for changing your financial future… helping you make the kind of money you’ve always dreamed of.
Please note, the information Bob will share with you is not available anywhere else, at any price. If you want to learn how you can get in on this life-changing opportunity, please read on.
Get Free Names From eBay
To keep growing your Internet business, you have to keep acquiring the e-mail addresses of prospective customers. When you have their e-mail addresses, it costs next to nothing to keep in touch with them on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. And the more you communicate with them, the more likely you are to reach them when they’re ready to buy your product or service.
There are many ways to collect those e-mail addresses, but here’s one you may not have heard of: Sell your product or service on eBay.
While you can’t directly solicit e-mail addresses on eBay, you can include a link on your posting that allows people to find out more about you – even if they don’t buy the item you have posted. When those interested prospects click on your link, you send them to a landing page. And you make sure there’s plenty of benefit-oriented copy on that landing page explaining what the prospect will get by signing up for your e-mail list then and there.
[Ed. Note: Collecting names via eBay is just one smart business-building strategy. Find more information on how to make money on the Internet without investing any capital here.]
Dear ETR: “Where do I find organic wine?”
“Kelley Herring had an insightful article in ETR about pesticides in wine.
“My question is: Where do I find organic wine? My health food store doesn’t have it. And I don’t remember seeing it in any grocery or ‘drug’ stores. Is there a company we could order it from?
“By the way, I live in Bryan/College Station, Texas. It’s not exactly a metropolis.
“Thank you for any help you may send my way.”
Sally M.
Dear Sally,
While organic wines can be found at most larger health-oriented markets, like Whole Foods and Trader Joes, I’ve found an even better option: The Organic Wine Company. Not only are their wines organic, they also offer sulfite-free and biodynamic wines.
Owned and operated by the Raskin family (which includes several forward-thinking doctors, might I add), The Organic Wine Company has been in business for 200 years. They work with small vineyards that take great pride in creating handcrafted wines that are eco-friendly too.
My favorites include Chateau Veronique – aptly named for the company’s spirited co-owner – with a jammy fruit character of cherry, plum, and blackberry, and Crozes Hermitage – a strong, aromatic Syrah with smokey, black fruit flavors.
Check out their extensive (and reasonably priced) selection at theorganicwinecompany.com. They even offer a 100 percent satisfaction guarantee.
- Kelley Herring
[Ed. Note: Organic red wine is not the only "forbidden" luxury that you can enjoy without feeling guilty. Now you can eat delicious chocolate cake, too, and not worry about it. Nutrition expert Kelley Herring has created a cake mix that's absolutely sinful - but is actually good for you! Learn more about this dessert right here.
Have a question for Kelley or one of ETR's other experts? Send it to AskETR@ETRFeedback.com and we just may respond in ETR.]
It’s Fun to Know: Stinky Flowers
The star flower, voodoo lily, and sapranthus have never caught on with gardeners. It’s not surprising. These are just a few of the world’s lesser-known flowers that attract flies with a putrid smell that’s reminiscent of rotting meat. The flies act as pollinators for the stinky flowers, just as bees do for their sweet-smelling cousins.
(Source: Mentalfloss.com)
== Highly Recommended ==
Fire Your Boss and Retire This Year Making Six Figures
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If you’re looking for a new break and the opportunity of a lifetime, jump on this now.
Word to the Wise: Patina
“Patina” (PAT-n-uh or puh-TEEN-uh) – from the Latin for “a dish” – is the color or incrustation, as a result of natural aging, that changes the appearance of an object’s surface. The word is also used to refer to a superficial layer or exterior.
Example (as used by Gary Kinder in Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea): “[The ship] was sleek and black, her decks scrubbed smooth with holystones, her deckhouses glistening with the yellowed patina of old varnish.”
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I was gtrateful for the tips especially on how to make hard decisions easier. Definately i have a reason to smile coz i was in a dillema on how to make a decision and after reading the ETR, am now in a better perspective to make a sound one. Kudos for the ETR team for the good work you are doing.